Ariel Pruchnicki is a Laboratory manager for the VCAT. She is a graduate of Central Connecticut University where she studied Biology. She has a certificate in project management and supply chain management and analytics. Ariel comes from Florida with 10 years of industry experience. 

Xiaotao received her Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology from Sichuan University in 1984 and Master’s degree in Microbiology from the Institute of Microbiology at the Chinese Academy of Science in 1987.Xiaotao joined in Dr. Mark Denison’s lab of Pediatric Infectious Disease at VUMC in 1992. During her tenure in Denison lab, she studied the biology of coronaviruses (CoVs), including SARS-CoV-2. Her research focused on investigating the mechanisms of CoV replication, exploring fidelity regulatory networks, examining the role of recombination in CoV evolution, and development of anti-CoV therapeutics. In 2019, she received the Edward E. Price Jr. Award for Excellence in Basic Research at VUMC and was recognized in 2023 as one of Vanderbilt’s twelve highly cited researchers. She joined the Vanderbilt Center for Antibody Therapeutics as a Senior Research Specialist in 2025, where she continues to drive forward research in vaccine development and infectious disease prevention.